[Sca-cooks] Andalusian = Middle Eastern?

[David Friedman]

...

>However, what are the reasons to suggest that the foods of Andalusia 
>were common or even used in the Middle East? They may both be 
>Moslem, but Andalusia (I thought) was southern Spain and perhaps 
>Morocco? That's a long way from the Middle East.

Al Andalus is Muslim Spain. There is quite a considerable similarity 
between what you find in that cookbook and what you find in 
al-Baghdadi, suggesting regional variants of a more or less common 
cuisine.

>
>>Do we know when tea came into use in the Middle East? I can't think
>>of period references, although given the close ties between the
>>Ilkhans and the mongol rulers of China, it doesn't seem impossible.
>
>Who were the "Ilkhans" and what connections to the mongol rulers of 
>China are you talking about?

The Ilkhans were the Mongol rulers of Persia. In _A Soup for the Qan_ 
there is a discussion of the close  relations between the two groups, 
offered as an explanation of the appearance of a fair number of 
middle eastern recipes in a chinese cookbook.

>Even so, it seems unlikely to me that tea/chai would have made it to 
>the Middle East but not to Europe. Can anyone think of any other 
>central or southwestern Asian item that made it to the Middle East 
>but not to Europe within a reasonable time after that, which did 
>later catch on in Europe?

Civilization?

>Coffee certainly doesn't count since it isn't from Asia and it did 
>make it from the Middle East to Europe within a century or two.

About two centuries, I think.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com